There is an essential need for well-characterized human cancer tissue and expertise in oncologic pathology required by investigators at this Center. In recent years this need has rapidly increased largely fueled by the explosion in human genomic information. At the same time many critical issues concerning the use of human tissue for research have surfaced. These issues include: satisfying clinical and research needs without compromising patient care or patients' rights; procuring, processing and storing tissue in an appropriate manner suitable for molecular and cell biological investigation; acquiring sufficient numbers of samples for meaningful clinical correlations; prioritization and allocation of tissue to maximize utility; access to expertise in histopathology and tissue-based experimentation; and annotation of samples with appropriate clinical and pathology data for interpretation of experimental results. The Pathology Research Core is designed to provide a comprehensive resource to meet that need. The overall objective of the Core is to provide an efficient, cost effective, high quality, centralized pathology research resource supporting projects that require human tissue-based studies. The specific aims of the Core are: i) to provide pathology expertise at all stages of project development and experimentation using human tissue; ii) to procure, process, store and distribute well- characterized neoplastic and non-neoplastic human tissue to suit specific needs of investigators without compromise of patient care; iii) to provide routine histologic techniques, microdissection for tissue component purification and technical assistance in tissue-based experimentation; iv) to provide immunohistochemistry services including antibody characterization and optimization for immunohistochemistry.